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1949 -66)
JCPML. Records of the Government
Photographic Service. JCPML00036/11
JCPML. Records of the Curtin family.
JCPML00376/123
JCPML. Records of the Curtin family. JCPML00376/131
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| Prime Minister Robert Menzies (1939-41; 1949 -66) JCPML. Records of the Government Photographic Service. JCPML00036/11 |
Franklin Roosevelt. JCPML. Records of the Curtin family. JCPML00376/123 |
Inaugural meeting of the Advisory War Council, 28 October 1940, Prime Minister Robert Menziesis 3rd from right. JCPML. Records of the Curtin family. JCPML00376/131 |
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Foreign Policy Under Menzies
In In 1939, with war looming, Prime Minister Robert Menzies made a reassessment of Australia's foreign policy. In a broadcast to the Australian people he said: What Great Britain calls the Far East is to us the near north…little given as I am to encouraging the exaggerated ideas of Dominion independence and separatism which exist in some minds, I have become convinced that in the Pacific Australia must regard herself as a principal providing herself with her own information and maintaining her own diplomatic contact with foreign powers. [Watt, The Evolution of Australian Foreign Policy, p. 24] While Menzies did qualify this statement by asserting that Australia should not act in the Pacific as if it were 'a completely separate power' but rather as 'an integral part of the British Empire', it was a step towards recognising Australia's interests. 'What Great Britain calls the Far |
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| The Australian Department of External Affairs was established under its own permanent head, Lieutenant Colonel W R Hodgson, in 1935. By 1937 the Department had progressed to attaching an Australian Counsellor to the staff of the British Ambassador in Washington to provide some direct feedback to Australia. This letter is from George Pearce, Minister for External Affairs. JCPML. Records of Dept. of Foreign Affairs. Historical Documents Project. Japan (Selections), 1937-1938. JCPML00870/6 |
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